641 Episode 17 A Storm in a Teacup (2)
In response to my reply, Kim Dokja was silent for a moment. I felt strange.
Was there ever a time when Kim Dokja felt unfamiliar like now?
He has always been a friendly protagonist.
He represents the readers, defeating villains, fooling enemies with overwhelming information, and sacrificing himself to protect his comrades.
He became a constellation by collecting five stories, and he was the one who saw the end of the scenario by collecting all the 'great stories of victory and battle'.
A man who chose eternity himself to protect the world and became 'the oldest dream'.
He was talking.
「 Can you dream when you want to dream? 」
I was speechless for a moment.
Is there anyone who can dream when they want to dream?
When I shook my head, Kim Dokja said.
「 So neither can I. 」
The Oldest Dream, an all-knowing but incompetent God. I remembered the words Kim Dokja expressed when he was young.
「 I am not a person who dreams only of what I want. I just dream of everything in the universe. 」
Having said that, Kim Dokja turned his head and looked at the scenery of the snowy field.
I was looking at the same scenery.
For a moment I was scared.
Kim Dokja, is he really seeing the same scenery as I am? How many years have passed since the day he first became the Oldest Dream?
Is the Kim Dokja in front of me really the Kim Dokja I remember?
「 You don’t have to deal with that. 」
I was talking involuntarily.
「 That’s why Han Sooyoung wrote the novel. To make everyone dream the dream you dreamed. So, to free you from this eternity. 」
Kim Dokja nodded meekly.
「 But I'm the only one watching this 'world' right now. 」
This world.
That must be the meaning of the 41st turn of 'Ways of Survival'.
Kim Dokja asked me.
「 Do you think it would be better for this world to disappear? 」
In the world of the <Star Stream>, stories that no one reads disappear.
Just as an incarnation that has not received the gaze of any star dies alone.
「 I… 」
It was a question that was not easy to answer.
Is it right that the world where tragedy is predestined does not begin in the first place?
After thinking for a while, I came up with an answer.
「 I don’t know if it was really a convolution, but it’s a world that actually exists. If it's a world that's destined for destruction, if it's a world where sorrow outweighs joy— 」
「 Isn’t it better not to? 」
I couldn't help but nod my head.
Even if the end is a tragedy, there will surely be various joys and sorrows in that world.
Someone will find their own happiness in that world of destruction.
I know. I know, but I also had something to say.
「 Someone is dead. There are people who died because of this story. 」
Readers who were outside the story were drawn into the story. Even now, the faces of Jung Jaewoo and Sergeant Jung Moonho, who were dying, were not forgotten.
Then Kim Dokja replied.
「 But someone might have lived thanks to that story. 」
It felt like having cold water poured over my head.
Kim Dokja, who was telling the story, was definitely on the 'alive' side.
Because he survived by reading Han Sooyoung's 'Ways of Survival'.
「 Should this story still not have started? 」
I couldn't say anything.
Anyone would have been the same.
No one can say to the boy who grew up through that misfortune, "You were the one who had to die."
I thought about Han Sooyoung, who wrote the 1,863 turns in 'Ways of Survival' and the dokkaebi king. She said the story will begin even if she doesn't write it, but the Dokkaebi King didn't tell her how the story would begin.
And Han Sooyoung most certainly knew a story that could help 'Kim Dokja' survive.
She wrote it, and Kim Dokja read it. Yoo Junghyuk lived the story and the three people met.
A world where the beginning, the middle, and the end interlock. A circular universe where it is unknown who existed first.
In front of a chain of causes and effects that seemed to bite their tails as if it were natural, I didn't know where to begin and how to cover the wrongs.
When I raised my head, I saw Kim Dokja's face.
「 Some stories are sad, some stories are funny. There are heartbreaking stories, and there are stories that I can't stand because I'm curious about the next chapter. 」
As if a story only he could see was embroidered in the distant sky.
Kim Dokja was looking up at the sky.
「 Is a sad story bad, and a happy story good? How about a sad and happy story? Is a story of predestined destruction meaningless? 」
I blankly listened to that.
「 In a universe that was born of tragedy from the beginning, it would have been better if it did not exist. 」
Only then did I seem to know a little bit of what Kim Dokja was talking about.
Maybe it wasn't just the story of the <Star Stream>.
The universe I lived in was the same.
No one in the world knew the birth and end of the universe. Even in a world without scenarios, people suffered. They died of war or starvation, hated each other or killed each other. People were either happy or sad, and found hope in despair.
And everyone met their own demise.
How can we say that the universe is different from this universe, and how and to whom should we ask the sins that the universe started? Is it possible to ask such a thing in the first place?
As if to answer me, Kim Dokja said.
「 We are all in longing. Life and death are just stories in it. It's like a starlight shining in a distant universe for an instant. 」
I know what that means.
But I was too ordinary a human being to accept that. I am afraid of death. I hate being sad. It's scary when someone disappears, so i wanted to run away
from the coming destruction. From the fact that neither this universe, nor the <Star Stream>, nor anything else is eternal.
「 There is no unfinished story. 」
Unlike me, Kim Dokja accepted and understood that fact. To him, the three ways were just stories.
Happy or sad, it was all just stories to him.
He has read the story and is reading. He existed like that.
For so many years I can't possibly imagine.
「 You… Are you really the Kim Dokja I know? 」
Maybe he wanted Kim Dokja to lie.
I wanted him to still be the main character of this story.
He grins as usual, hoping he'll tell me that he'll figure it out somehow, so we'll see the end of this scenario together.
「 If you think so. 」
My stomach rumbled. Could it be because of dizziness? Kim Dokja, who was standing in the snowy field in a clear shape, looked somewhat blurry. There was the feeling of darkness lurking deep in my head wriggling.
I stumbled and asked.
「 Why did we come here? Me and the other readers , for what reasondid we come? 」
Kim Dokja did not answer.
Just like the first time I saw him, he just stared at me with a sad smile.
I couldn't express it well, but I knew it the moment I saw that smile.
My question is a question that Kim Dokja cannot answer.
「 You can’t tell me? 」
There will be several reasons. It could be because of probability, or it could be because of the specificity of this space.
In the first place, something was strange about this snowy field.
When I came here, I felt like I was in a fairy tale.
Fairy tales had a way of speaking suitable for fairy tales, so I used to speak like a character in a fairy tale.
A world where accurate stories cannot be exchanged. A place where everything exists as metaphors and symbols.
I remembered that 'snowfield' was a metaphor for 'between the lines'.
Although nothing is written, in fact, it’s the place where all the truth is revealed, Kim Dokja said.
「 Everything I know is a story you know too. 」
「 …You who are now in front of me are not the real you, right? 」
Kim Dokja smiled silently.
When you think about it, it was a story that made no sense.
Kim Dokja was the Oldest Dream, and he was scattered as fragments of the universe.
Even if he had come back, it would not have been possible for me to face such a great person and speak properly.
So Kim Dokja met me through an expedient.
Kim Dokja replied in an ambiguous voice.
「 We are the ones who create the stories, but at the same time, the stories are also using us. The answer you want will be revealed when you complete your story. 」
「 What was the answer you found? You've already read 'Ways of Survival'. 」
「 I have read all of it, and I have not read all of it. 」
I blankly opened my mouth.
All stories have already been written, and are being written at the same time. If that is Kim Dokja's answer, I might have something left to say.
「 You asked me earlier if there is no meaning to a story in which the end is fixed. 」
Kim Dokja nodded his head. I looked down at my feet and said.
「 I don't know the answer to your question yet. But I know at least one thing. 」
The tragedy of the 41st turn was written in 'Omniscient Reader'. This world ends in misfortune, and it is said to be one of the most terrible worlds among Yoo Junghyuk's numerous rounds.
「 I will stop the tragedy of this world. 」
I thought of the readers who entered this world. I thought of Dansu ahjussi, Kyung Sein, Killer King and Literature Girl 64, Ye Hyunwoo, Goo Seonah, and Kim Kyungsik.
「 I will see the end of this world. 」
Jung Heewon, who lost her father at the same time. It reminded me of Yoo Jonghyuk who felt that pain resembled in the terrible regressions.
「 Even if that results in more world lines being changed, I will struggle to the end no matter what. 」
I understand the feelings of Han Sooyoung, who had no choice but to use the 'Ways of Survival' to save Kim Dokja.
Perhaps my choice may lead to a greater cosmic tragedy. Some people will criticize and point fingers at me. Maybe those people will cry.
However, since I am not the Oldest Dream, I cannot dream and worry about such a big universe.
All I can see is the world in front of my eyes. People who read my story and live this story. Just a small happiness in front of their eyes that will disappear like a thread.
「 Cheon Inho. 」
Kim Dokja said.
「 No, Lee Hakhyun. 」
I raised my head involuntarily.
There was Kim Dokja.
The Kim Dokja I knew.
The person who loves stories more than anyone else was talking to me.
「 This time, tell me a happy story. 」
[Exiting from the snow field.]
As soon as I opened my eyes, what I saw was the sky over Seoul Station. And for me, there have been some changes.
[The <Star Stream> noticed your presence.]
[Your '□□' skill is subject to probability restrictions from now on.]
[Some functions of the skill will be sealed until your qualifications are met.]
[The 'failures' you collected have been recorded on the final wall.]
[Failures collected so far: 2.]
['The Final Wall' recognizes your contributions.]
[Your exclusive skill evolves!]
[You will receive additional benefits whenever the number of 'failures' increases.]
[You have achieved an achievement that does not exist.]
[Your new story is created.]
Feeling the power of the rising story, I looked up at the night sky of Seoul Station.
A myriad of stars and darkness were mixed in the night sky. Watching the scattering of light, I involuntarily opened my mouth.
This world was written and not written at the same time.
The starlight in the sky came from a distance of hundreds of millions of light years. Among them, the most dazzling star might have already disappeared a long time ago. The death of the brightest star right now may not yet be visible to me.
The original light that clearly exists, but has not yet been recorded in this sky.
As Kim Dokja said, the ending of this universe may be predetermined.
Even so, this story has only just begun, and I have a sentence left to write.
So I will write.
[Fable, 'Recorder of things that will disappear', has been born.]
「 This world hasn’t ended yet. 」
Even after all that, I still liked this story.